How an Eco-conscious Mindset Builds Healthier Homes

Passive homes - how do they compare to a so-called “regular” house? And what can homeowners expect with respect to their carbon footprint and future energy bills? To talk about these high performance homes and the steps it takes to shift to varying degrees of eco-conscious living, we've invited Casey Gray, the founder of an award winning sustainable building company, The Conscious Builder, and the host of the Conscious Builder podcast.

Related Content & Links:

• Casey Grey
  • Twitter: @CaseyAGrey
  • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseygrey/
• The Conscious Builder
  • Twitter: @BuildConscious
  • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-conscious-builder/
  • Website: https://www.theconsciousbuilder.com/
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_conscious_builder
• Resources
  • The Conscious Builder podcast: https://www.theconsciousbuilder.com/podcast

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Transcript:

Dan Seguin 00:43

Welcome back, everyone to our latest episode of The ThinkEnergy podcast, the rise in green construction is projected to reach $460 billion globally by 2022. It's a clear sign that more of us are embracing cleaner living and a desire to tackle climate change, and carbon emissions from the comfort of our home. Did you know that 111 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions are released into the atmosphere every year from Canadian homes and buildings. In fact, approximately 60% of Canada's energy usage is from heating and cooling our buildings. When it comes to home design and construction, passive homes and other low impact builds are changing the building landscape thanks to informed and environmentally conscious consumers. At a high level, a passive home works with its environment, reducing the need for additional energy for heating and cooling. Some factors include how a home is positioned or oriented on the parcel of land, how it makes use of sunlight as an energy source, its air tightness and overall indoor air quality. Net-zero and passive homes don't look any different from other recently built homes - even on the inside, most of what makes the home efficient is happening behind the walls, in the foundation or on the roof. Perhaps the surest way to tell a passive home from a regular home would be to look at its utility bill. Certified passive homes are 80-90% more energy efficient than a typical home built to code. And as demand rises, and costs fall, energy efficient homes are paying for themselves faster than ever before. That being said, awareness and incentives may be the keys to greater adoption. According to the Canadian Home Builders Association, there are only 456 certified netzero buildings in the country. And according to passive house Canada, there are currently only 67, certified residential, commercial and institutional buildings. So here is today's big question. What exactly goes into a passive home? And what can homeowners expect with respect to their carbon footprint and future energy bills? To talk about these high performance homes, we've invited Casey Gray, the founder of an award winning sustainable building company, The Conscious Builder, and the host of the Conscious Builder podcast. Okay, let's get started. Casey, thanks for joining us today. Perhaps you can tell us a bit about yourself, your background and what's led you to sustainable building?

Casey Gray 04:05

Yeah, I guess I have to go back a little bit. My background, I guess if you want to call it back to when I skipped born raised in Ottawa, so I've been in Ottawa my whole life, in the east end of Ottawa at the beginning and then moved to the west end and south and all over the place since I've been in construction, essentially, and married and very happily been with my wife going on 16 we're trying to figure this out the other day, like married seven years later, 16 years, I think at this point. We have a seven year old, who's doing great, so very happy with that. We're navigating the school system like everybody else who has kids. Luckily, we have one to deal with. So I'm sure with multiple kids, it's a lot more difficult. So I'm not complaining by any means, that's for sure. So that's all great. But the reason why I mentioned that is actually because my family is kind of what led me into the symbol building portion. So I've been in construction since after high school went and did my apprenticeship became a carpenter and started running jobs. My guy's 21 when I ran my first job, actually, I think I was younger than that. But in either case I went on my own in my early 20s, and kind of have been growing since then. But whe...